Soooo…..I wrote this research paper this past Fall and I THOUGHT I posted it….but I guess not. So here it is.
Dictionary.com defines a slut as “an immoral or dissolute woman; prostitute” or “a dirty, slovenly woman.” Meanwhile, any kind of definition for the phrase “slut shame” would have to be found in unofficial source such as Wikipedia or Urban Dictionary. The definition on Wikipedia defines the term as, “to describe the act of making a woman feel guilty or inferior for certain sexual behaviors or desires that deviate from traditional or orthodox gender expectations, or that which may be considered to be contrary to natural or supernatural/religious law.”
Women in pop culture have been victims of slut shaming, meanwhile the men are glorified for their “game”. Who are these women that have this hateful language thrown at them? They are women who openly and unapologetically speak their mind and express sexuality. In conservative households these women are viewed as talentless trash and awful role models. Instead, women who present themselves in a sweet and modest way are given the title of “role model” and young girls are taught to idolize and imitate them, which feeds into the madonna/whore complex that our society greatly suffers from. As Andi Zeisler says in her book, Feminism and Pop Culture, “Pop culture is as complicated, frustrating, and full of mixed signals for women as it’s ever been,” (Zeisler 148). It puts women in a box and destroys the idea of an equal society. How can equality exist among double standards and fear of shame from peers? It cannot. In a healthy and equal society that we desperately want to believe we live in, the concept of “purity” and sluts cannot exist
The term “Madonna” refers to the Virgin Mary and is associated with virgins or being virginal. On the other side of the spectrum, there is the word “Whore” which is defined as a woman with “promiscuous” sexual behavior. These two extremes are the identities women are expected to choose from, and this way of viewing women is called the madonna/whore complex. In the 1980s film, The Breakfast Club, the madonna/whore is discussed between the two main female characters, Allison & Claire, who are a visual representation of the complex.
Claire plays the role of the virgin as she is conventionally pretty and presents herself as a pristine victim. Meanwhile, Allison portrays the whore with her grungy appearance and rough-around-the-edges attitude. When the inevitable question of “Have you ever done it?” comes up, Allison says to Claire, “Well, if you say you haven’t, you’re a prude. If you say you have you’re a slut. It’s a trap. You want to but you can’t, and when you do you wish you didn’t, right?” As the conversation continues, male characters chime in about how “All girls are teases.” When Claire protests that she does not do anything, Allison explains to her that that is exactly why she is considered a tease which furthers the idea of female sexuality being a trap. Even the virgin is not “really” a virgin. However, Allison mentions a kind of loophole in the system, “If you love someone it’s okay,” (The Breakfast Club, 1985). Unfortunately, this loophole is simply another restriction that women are tricked into believing they must follow in disguise.
This “trap” mindset limits women to an all or nothing kind of thinking when it comes to their sexual identity. In his article,Rush’s Version of the “Virgin/Whore” Dichotomy, Jim Carroll comments on the categories and limitations within the complex. He states, “These categories come complete with dress codes, birth control regulations, guide lines for hymen maintenance, clitoral mutilation, and other such things.” Not only is this damaging to a woman’s personal view of herself, but it makes her vulnerable to harsh judgment in the public eye. According to a study review in 2003, “A middle school student may be labeled a slut for wearing too much makeup, initiating conversation with a boy, or using a tampon during menstruation,” (Crawford & Popp 2003). Perhaps the most damaging of all, is that this view of female sexuality sends a message to young girls that the idea of their virginity or purity are all they really have. They are essentially told that they must never enjoy their own sexuality before reaching their “ultimate” goal in life: getting married.
The film, Black Swan, is a perfect visual representation of what imposing two extreme identities can do to a woman’s psyche. Natalie Portman’s character, Nina, is an aspiring ballerina dressed in pink and white. A large portion of the movie displays how Nina is incredibly coddled by her mother as if she were still a child. Nina struggles to grow as an artist so she may fit into the lead role of the sexual black swan. In an attempt to become more in touch with her sensual side, Nina goes out to a club with her rival for the role of the swan and polar opposite, Lily. As Nina partakes in alcohol, drugs, and sex Lily, she makes a brief transformation from virgin to whore. The writers on the feminist website, Feministing, have weighed in on this concept, “Nina has achieved perfection on one side of the dichotomy… but it’s when she tries to become the perfect whore too that Nina is torn apart” (Jos 2011). By the end of the movie, Nina has had multiple hallucinations due a mental breakdown created by her struggle to fit into two completely different parts of her humanity when she is told by society that she can only be one. Feministing writer, Maya, writes:
“I was reminded, watching this movie, just how often we’re asked to play both. Be sweet and sexy, submissive and ambitious, maternal and exciting–at different times, for different people, in an impossible balancing act. And, of course, do it perfectly, effortlessly, as if you aren’t trying at all, as if you just happen to be exactly what everyone wants you to be. This is what seems to ultimately destroy Nina–the pressure to do it all while maintaining that illusion of effortlessness.” (2011)
Recently, in pop culture there has been huge divide in the follower world because of the madonna/whore complex. Smilers, fans of Miley Cyrus, and Swifties, fans of Taylor Swift have been at war ever since Cyrus left her squeaky clean image of a Disney star. Oddly, enough, however, both fandoms call the other’s idol a whore or a slut based on different things. The Swifties attack Miley Cyrus on her “slutty behavior” and provocative fashion choices. Meanwhile, the Smilers relentlessly make fun of Taylor Swift’s many different love interests.
These are not the only shots fired from either fandom. Both sides seem to have an arsenal of other attacks for different reasons. Swifties accuse Cyrus of being untalented trash and Smilers make fun of Swift for being stuck in high school due to her wide collection of songs about ex-boyfriends. The main concern for the parents of these fans, however, is the issue of whether or not either of these women are good role models. It appears that the majority of parents favor Taylor Swift due to her virginal image and wholesome lyrics. They look at Miley Cyrus and see a bad influence. What is interesting about this, is that the British singer, Adele, has the same content as Swift on her albums, and became pregnant outside of wedlock, yet neither side has said a word about her.
By the standards of the madonna/whore complex, Adele does not actually fit either identity. Because of her crass language and the fact that she became pregnant, she is clearly not the virgin, but the way she presents herself so elegantly removes her from the whore identity as well. One could argue that she is in the “mother” category, but the mother identity has fallen under the virgin umbrella. Adele seems to be the exception to the madonna/whore dichotomy.
Looking at Miley Cyrus separate from Taylor Swift or Adele, we see a typical story of a good girl gone bad. Cyrus started as a Disney child star and had the approval of most parents. As she got older, her performances became more and more questionable for children’s entertainment. Not to mention her behavior made parents wonder if she was a good role model for their children. Leaked images of Cyrus seductively showing off her tummy, videos of her smoking marijuana, and her performance at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards, which included her dancing on a pole, and her more recent performance at the 2013 Video Music Awards told them no.
As Miley Cyrus begins to express herself more maturely, people begin labeling her as a whore or a slut. Nowadays, that seems to be her main identifier. Going back to the original definition of these names, a woman with promiscuous sexualbehavior, Cyrus still does not fit them. Until September of 2013, she had been in a monogamous five year relationship and was even engaged for a long period of time. This does not go along with the definition of “promiscuous sexual behavior.” What defined her as a slut or a whore was her behavior on stage and in her videos. CNN compiled different reactions from parents to Miley Cyrus’s new attitude. This was the general consensus, “The 20-year-old has every right to chart a new course beyond her Disney days…It’s just that the path she is choosing seems so wrong and dangerous,” (Wallace 2013). There is no doubt that had Cyrus found herself in Adele’s situation before the breaking off of her engagement, she would have received an incredible about of scrutiny. People would have used her pregnancy as proof to solidify their claims of her being a whore, as they did in 2008 when Zoey 101 star, Jamie Lynn Spears, became pregnant as a teen.. In our culture, Miley Cyrus is the living, breathing madonna-whore complex.
In extreme contrast to Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift is the epitome of the Madonna. She is the blue-eyed, golden-hair-golden-heart conventionally pretty girl that is typically associated with the idea of virginity. She writes songs about pining after boys, love, and being the outsider. Her image surrounds the idea of a fairy tale or Cinderella story. Marie Lyn Bernard, an author on the girl culture site Autostraddle, had this to say about Swift’s method of presenting herself, “Taylor’s behavior & imagery is just as wholesome as the apple pie her fans dream of baking for their own Jonas Brother-esque boyfriend. She doesn’t peddle paradoxical mixed messages about sex like the previous generation of teenaged pop stars.”Swift’s general kind and sweet attitude is what tends to win parents over. Not only that, but her pride in being a role model to young girls makes her much more preferable in the eyes of conservative parents. Rolling Stone even affirmed her image as a role model, “Taylor wants to help adolescent girls everywhere feel better about themselves” (Grigoriadis 2009). The most controversial moment in her career was when Kanye West interrupted her acceptance speech during the 2010 Grammy Awards which made her the object of public sympathy.
It is not so clear in Swift’s case what would happen if she had become pregnant by one of her previous boyfriends like Adele had. The members of the rivaling fandom would most likely have an “I Told You So” attitude and the chock from conservative parents would be heard around the world, but would that change their views of her? It is hard to say that an out of wedlock pregnancy would ruin Swift’s career. In fact, a pregnancy might even strengthen her career because she could easily play the role of the victim again.
It is note-worthy that, there is no equivalent of Miley vs. Taylor for men. Men are allowed to be sexual without being shamed for it. In fact, being sexual is expected of men. While this may seem like a privilege men it can also be very constricting. The idea of masculinity through sexuality could be considered the male answer to Barbie™. There is an expectation that for a man to be considered manly he must be hyper masculine, show no emotion, and claim the title of a “Womanizer.”
From the time they are born, boys are shown images of huge men with rippling muscles. They are told that crying and the color pink are for girls. If a boy cries he is told to “man up” or to “stop being a sissy.” The most common insult that young boys sling at each other is “You throw, run, punch, etc. like a girl.” When these boys grow older and express any kind of femininity they are accused of being gay or a “fag.” Not only are these boys expected to show no emotion, but as men, their work status becomes another basis for their masculinity. Katie Milestone and Anneke Miles write, “…work is still central to masculinity. Men in popular culture are nearly always working men and tend to dominate high-status, powerful working roles such as doctors or crime fighters,” (144).
Most of what makes a man “manly,” however, comes from whether or not he can pick up women. Milestone and Meyer comment on this as well, “…masculinity is staunchly and unambiguously heterosexual, focused on the sexual conquest of women. Heterosexuality is understood as natural and grounded in a strong sex drive which has to be continuously satisfied,” (115). A man’s masculinity and, by association, his sexuality are almost instantly called into question if he does not have regular sex with women. Meanwhile, a woman is considered a whore if she sleeps with him. This system simply does not make any sense. If men are expected to be having a lot of sex to prove their masculinity, but women are supposed to remain virginal until marriage if they want to be respected, and homosexuality is frowned upon, then who, exactly, are these men supposed to be having sex with?
One of the victims of this view of masculinity is One Direction member, Harry Styles. Harry has been portrayed in the media as a womanizer who only dates older women. This is an easy picture to paint due to Styles’s popularity and multiple tattoos. There have been many rumors spread about him and his female friends in order to get this idea of Harry Styles as a womanizer into people’s heads, much like propaganda. Styles even joked in an Australian interview, “I have a lot of friends. Some of them are female, and apparently I’m dating all of them.”
Styles’s general demeanor contradicts the notion of this womanizer propaganda. In multiple interviews Styles is the one that states the band does not want to do anything that will objectify women. He is also quite sensitive and responds very emotionally to hate sent to him. This behavior makes it hard to believe the media image of “Harry Styles the Womanizer” yet it is still the picture tabloids try to sell. When Harry Styles and Taylor Swift were presumed to be in a relationship, there was a lot of hype surrounding them. There was no doubt that Styles would ultimately end up hurting Swift and that she’d come out with a scathing song about him. After their split, a gossip magazine, Hollywood Life, posted an article on their website about Harry bringing multiple girls up to his hotel room while on tour. The author blatantly sided with Swift saying:
“…suddenly Taylor doesn’t sound so crazy for saying that the reason she and Harry split was because he was kissing other girls and had a wandering eye Harry definitely seems done with Taylor, and we hope that she’s done with him, because he seems [more interested] in flirting and hooking up than he does in having a relationship!” (Gruttadaro 2013)
However, even with Styles’s image of being a womanizer and multiple tattoos, there is still a huge part of the One Direction fan base who genuinely believe that he is gay. Rumors have been circulating since One Direction’s formation on the X-Factor that Harry Styles is in a secret relationship with his bandmate Louis Tomlinson. As explained on E! News’s website, “Rumors have been swirling for quite some time that Styles and Tomlinson, also dubbed Larry Stylinson, are an item, with countless blogs and YouTube videos devoted to the fan fictional bromance,” (Ossanda 2013). Neither of the boys have officially denied or confirmed these rumors, yet there is still a large population of people who believe these rumors are true.
When it comes to societal standards of the male identity, Harry Styles could very well be his own category, much like Adele when it comes to female identity. His image is one of a womanizer, yet people still believe he is gay, possibly even because of the played up womanizer image. This, as a result, either makes Styles an exception to the idea that a man believed to have sex with women regularly will solidify his masculinity or confirms that being emotional undermines highly expressed male sexuality in the form of masculinity.
Referring back to Black Swan & The Breakfast Club, it seems there is no position a woman can take without facing scrutiny. A woman who chooses to refrain from sexual endeavors is either overlooked as a prude or accused of being a tease whether she expresses sexuality or not. Women who choose to engage in brazen sexual behavior are looked down upon as debased whores. There seems to be no safe zone when it comes to female identity in our society, and trying to fit into either box can destroy a woman’s mental health. As shown in Black Swan, it can lead to eating disorders as a result of striving for “perfection” and self-harm as a means to cope with the inability to meet impossible standards. Meanwhile, men face little to no judgment for whatever decision they make regarding their sexuality. Due to this double standard and restrictive box society places on women, they are prevented from comfortably identifying themselves. This is the oppressive idealology that contradicts the idea of the equal post-feminism society that many people claim we now live in.
In conclusion, by looking carefully at the evidence above, it is clear that our society prevents women from being equal through the way it confines them in their sexual identity. This idea that women either represent the pristine image of a sweet and submissive virgin, or partake in the unrespectable portrayal of the crude and outspoken whore is a way to further oppress and control women. By using these standards, we are forcing women to choose between being respected and living for themselves. In order to change this, we must stop policing others’ sexualities and expression of that sexuality. Our society must acknowledge that there are no whores, only women enjoying their most basic human rights. We must put an end to double standards and shaming language that tells women their self-worth is directly tied to how much skin they show or how many partners they have had. As a society, we need to stop letting young men believe that they are “entitled to have casual sex with “sluts” until they [are] ready to settle down with a “good woman,”” (Crawford & 2003). There is simply no room for the idea of “purity,” sluts, and whores in a society that is truly equal.
Work Cited
"Black Swan." 21 Jan 2011. Feministing, Online Posting to Black Swan: A Feministing Discussion. Web. 3 Nov. 2013.
Carroll, Jim. “Rush’s Version of the “Virgin/Whore” Dichotomy.” Talking Tolerance. Chron, 6 Mar 2012. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.
Crawford, Mary, and Danielle Popp. “Sexual double standards: A review and methodological critique of two decades of research.” Journal of Sex Research. 40.1 (2010): n. page. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 24 Oct. 2013.
Grigoriadis, Vanessa. “The Very Pink, Very Perfect Life of Taylor Swift.” RollingStone. 5 Mar 2009: n. page. Print.
Gruttadaro, Andrew. “Harry Styles Invites Multiple Girls To Hotel Room — So Over Taylor Swift.” Hollywood Life. 17 Mar 2013: n. page. Web. 3 Nov. 2013.
Milestone, Katie, and Anneke Meyer. Gender in Popular Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012. Print.
Montgomery, James. “Taylor Swift Backlash: Readers Weigh In.” MTV. 3 Feb 2010: n. page. Web.
Styles, Harry. Interview by Sunrise. One Direction’s Harry Styles Grilled About Kissing Louis Tomlinson 30 Oct 2013. Oct. TV.
Tanen, Ned, John Hughes, Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony M. Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, John Kapelos, Dede Allen, Keith Forsey, and Ruth T. Del. The Breakfast Club. Universal City, CA: Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 2008.
Wallace, Kelly. “Outraged parents: Why Miley Cyrus’ performance sets girls and women back.” CNN. (2013): n. page. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.
Wikipedia contributors. “Slut shaming.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 30 Aug. 2013. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
Zeisler, Andi. Feminism and Pop Culture. Berkeley: Seal Press, 2008. Print.
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